No. You use the the second conditional to talk about future possibilities that are either impossible or probably not going to be true. You use the third conditional to talk about something from the past that did not, or could not happen.

Second conditional uses the past simple followed by 'would' and the infinitive. Because it uses the infinitive it cannot express a past possibility, although the condition on which the future possibility hangs may itself involve the past.

Your quote is not a complete example - it is only the condition.

A complete example would be:

• If I had the brains I'd invent something great.

The condition is something from the past ('brains' or knowledge that you didn't gain), but the possibility that hangs on it is a future intention (to invent something great).

The third conditional uses the past tense and not the infinitive. Both the condition and the event are in the past:

• If I had had the brains I would have invented something great.

No. You use the the second conditional to talk about present or future possibilities that are either impossible or probably not going to be true. You use the third conditional to talk about something from the past that did not, or could not happen.

Second conditional uses the past simple followed by 'would' and the infinitive. Because it uses the infinitive it cannot express a past possibility, although the condition on which the future possibility hangs may itself involve the past.

Your quote is not a complete example - it is only the condition.

A complete example would be:

• If I had paid more attention at school I could get a better job.

The condition is something from the past, but the possibility that hangs on it is something you could have done now or in the future.

The third conditional uses the past tense and not the infinitive. Both the condition and the event are in the past:

• If I had had the opportunity I would have gone to college.

No. The second conditional uses the past simple followed by 'would' and the infinitive. It is used to (i) talk about things in the future that are probably not going to be true, and (ii) talk about something in the present which is impossible, because it's not true.

Because it uses the infinitive it cannot express a past possibility, although the condition on which the future possibility hangs may itself involve the past.

Your quote is not a complete example - it is only the condition.

A complete example would be:

• If I had the brains I'd invent something great.

The condition is something from the past ('brains' or knowledge that you didn't gain), but the possibility that hangs on it is a future intention (to invent something great).

However, you can refer to something you didn't do in the past because of a condition that wasn't met - it just wouldn't be the second conditional because you'd be using the past tense and not the infinitive. This is the third conditional.

• If I had had the brains I would have invented something great.

No. You use the the second conditional to talk about future possibilities that are either impossible or probably not going to be true. You use the third conditional to talk about something from the past that did not, or could not happen.

Second conditional uses the past simple followed by 'would' and the infinitive. Because it uses the infinitive it cannot express a past possibility, although the condition on which the future possibility hangs may itself involve the past.

Your quote is not a complete example - it is only the condition.

A complete example would be:

• If I had the brains I'd invent something great.

The condition is something from the past ('brains' or knowledge that you didn't gain), but the possibility that hangs on it is a future intention (to invent something great).

The third conditional uses the past tense and not the infinitive. Both the condition and the event are in the past:

• If I had had the brains I would have invented something great.